We lucked out this time! We had booked a 4 person sleeper cabin
but there was just the two of us in it for the night. The ultimate luxury,
privacy. We still had our super 2 person room next train to go but this was the
best we had had it so far on trains overnight. Even though Simon still hardly
slept at least it wasn’t due to people snoring or tiny space.
We rolled over the border to Poland around 5am and got to
Krakow at roughly 6.30. Everything was shut but this was not surprising. Its
stupid oclock in the morning and still dark who wants to be at work? We walk to
our hotel which fortunately has 24 reception to find out it is a public
holiday! Never mind, we’ll still see all the things. Our room was one of the
cheapest we had booked this trip and we were apprehensive about what awaited us
but our fears were misplaced. We quickly came to learn our buying power in
Poland is incredible.
We had breakfast at the hotel and did some blogging and
picture sorting while we waited for the sun to show up and the coffee to kick
in. Suitably fuelled we walked out into the brisk Polish morning to the nearest
attraction, Saint Marys Basilica, it was closed. The public holiday is Orthodox
Christmas! So all the Poles are off the church in the morning keeping them
mostly closed to visitors. No matter, the Market Square is waking up and the
Christmas markets are still there. We have a wander around the square looking
at the Sukiennice which is the central building of the market square with an
arcade full of typical souvenir shops. The building itself is a great
centrepiece of the square. Around the other sides you have the town hall tower,
the last remaining element of the town hall that once stood in the empty space.
It was our 11 year anniversary so Amy bought Simon a giant heart shaped
lollypop with “you are perfect” written in Polish. Fur is big here and there
were many beautiful leather and fur coats, jackets, gloves, hats etc. we wanted
a lot of it but its heavy and we have no room to carry it – this is becoming a
repeating theme.
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| Just twirling around in this massive empty public space |
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| These lil dolls are everywhere - such a shame no room to pack one |
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| Main square |
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| Main square |
This was meant to be the coldest place we would visit on our
journey and yet with the sun out and no wind it was 10 degrees. Positively
balmy. We confirmed with many locals the unusualness of the situation, it was
-20 and deep snow this time last year. What is going on Europe!? A reminder, we
are in Poland, yes Poland, in the middle of winter. There is no sense here.
Everything was closed for the day so we could not explore
the castle and the Cathedral was shut to visitors until later that afternoon so
we decided to explore the Krakow Jewish quarter. It’s meant to be really good,
have some great architecture and some famous places. Sounds great! So off we
go. After about 30 minutes of walking through the area we realised that without
more information about where things are and the significance of them we were
wasting our time. Without seeing anything of note we set off towards the river
to see the Rock Church which sounded pretty cool.
It was cool but we only got a glimpse inside just before a
service started. There were some interesting memorials and statues in the
church grounds but with the information all in Polish it was hard to make sense
of them.
We walked the along the river in the bright sun back towards
the castle to check out the Cathedral. Inside the massive building which still
had plenty of people inside and visiting. The usual features, massive altar,
high vaulted ceilings, lots of side chapels, incredible ornate decoration. The
things we have come to expect in cathedrals were all present. Well done Poland
in keeping your end up.
Returning to our room to do a little planning and research we go around the corner for some dinner a bit later and find this really cute Polish restaurant that serves traditional food at very reasonable prices. We had potato pancakes and meat dumplings which were both amazing. The dumplings in Polish are called pierogis.
Auschwitz
Disclaimer: This section is pretty heavy. If you dont want a mood killer skip ahead but I would encourage you to read at some point.
The next day we went to Auschwitz. We weren’t sure what to
expect from the experience, a few friends have gone and said it was emotional,
moving, horrifying and disturbing. With an open mind we arrived at the town and
walked to the museum grounds. Auschwitz 1. We booked a guided tour through the
grounds to make sure we got all the information and saw everything. The weather
was gloomy and misty which made you feel the depressing atmosphere of the place
even more.
As you enter Auschwitz there is a gate that translates to
‘work will set you free’ (we will let that sit with you). Auschwitz 1 was
originally Polish army barracks and is all bricks buildings. If it wasn’t for
its awful history the red brick buildings could actually be quite nice. Our
guide began showing up around and giving us number of people and the types of
people that were sent to Auschwitz 1. Originally Polish civilians and criminals
were imprisoned here along with Soviet POW’s. The Polish high society was
rounded up and put in prison to try and avoid any leadership of a resistance.
Over time due to harsh conditions, poor food, torture,
summary executions, brutal treatment and forced labour most prisoners succumbed
and died. Those that were too weak (old, children, disabled etc) were summarily
killed as there were of no use. It was in Auschwitz 1 that the Nazis started
their experiments with gas to kill masses of people and is the only site with a
gas chamber still intact. To be clear Auschwitz was a concentration camp,
Auschwitz-Birkinau was a death camp.
We were taken through the barracks where people lived, small
rooms with bare floors or a little straw, hundreds of people to these rooms the
conditions were unbelievable. Then we were taken through the museum of victims
belongings. This is the first impression of the immense scale of the
extermination that was conducted and the horror that was inflicted on victims.
We saw photos taken by the Nazis of victims getting out of
the cattle cars, walking with smiling faces as they were promised a shower and
a hot meal, only to be led to their deaths in the gas chambers. The Nazis had
sold many of them a dream, resettlement somewhere else away from the Germans
and persecution. They had sold them train tickets to this faraway place, sold
them land and shops to restart their lives. These people had packed up to
restart their lives with kitchenware, bathing accessories, things you would
fill a home with. They had absolutely no idea of the awful fate that awaited
them.
Walking through the displays I honed into one of the
thousands of men’s shaving brushes, and I became fixated on just 1 as tears
filled my eyes. I thought of this man, his family, and what he must have been
thinking as he packed his things ready for a new venture in his life. When did
he realise what was going to happen? When did any of them realise? What was
that moment like when he realised he would never see his family again, and
everything he had been told was a lie?
There is a pile of clearly labelled suitcases, clearly
labelled because they believed they would get it back after their ‘showers and
meals’. The Nazis amassed warehouses of victim’s belongings that came to be
known as “Canada” (because Canada was known as a wealthy nation) and were
filled to the brim. The victims that worked here had about as good a job as
they could get sorting peoples belonging into various piles. They could smuggle
blankets, clothes and other things at great risk out. Compared to some of the
other jobs this was as ‘cushy’ as it got.
The moment where we felt the most devastated was walking
into a room where 2 tonnes of human hair was enclosed. 2000 kilos of human hair
just sitting there. There was SEVEN tonnes found by the Soviets when they
liberated the camp. There was so much more but this was made into items and
sold by the Germans. It’s so awful to think that to some these people were only
good for their hair or that companies in Germany were knowingly paying for
human hair to stuff cushions and turn into materials. We are further horrified
to find out they used human fat to make soap, which they sold.
After this we went to the torture barracks where prisoners who “misbehaved” (Anything the guards felt like punishing at the time) were put into starvation cells, lightless cells, upright cells where you were put with 4 others in a tiny booth overnight where you could not move keeping you upright all night.
Finally we went to the Auschwitz 1 gas chamber. We could
take pictures inside but did not feel it was appropriate so we just have this
one of the outside to show you. Walking through the inside and seeing the
cremation ovens is chilling to the bone. I’ll never forget the feeling of
horror and sadness being in that place put on me.
We had a quick break here, fortunate because were both
mentally and emotionally drained from the experience so far before getting a
shuttle to Auschwitz 2 – Birkenau. Our guide had told us that it was over 20
times the size of Auschwitz 1. Number 1 is not exactly small so 20 times was
hard to imagine but on arriving at the second site it was overwhelming. The
scale of the place was too big to capture even from the guard tower over the
train track. What you see here is perhaps 5% of the size.
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| Some of the 'housing' has been destroyed leaving just areas where they once stood |
Birkenau was established when Auschwitz 1 was outgrown and a
dedicated ‘extermination’ facility was required (death camp as opposed to a
concentration camp). The train brought the victims right into the middle of the
camp and with a single ’doctor’ deciding immediate death by gas chamber or
forced labour just by looking at you as soon as you got off the train (after a
10 day train ride with no food or water would you look ‘fit’ to work). Children
under 14 useless, most middle aged women useless, elderly useless, dead all of
them.
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| Main entrance to Birkenau |
The gas chambers were destroyed by the Nazis attempting the
cover their tracks as they fled from the Soviet army. How they could even think
they could cover something this huge is ridiculous. Between the piles of rubble
is a memorial to all the victims of the camp. Its words struck deep within us.
Next to the gas chambers is a small pond. This pond was tested by scientists and was found to be dense with human ash remains. 4 pillars of black granite were erected as tombstones to unknown number of dead at that spot. The problem for the Nazis was not in the killing of people but in disposing of the bodies. Even with the crematoriums running at full capacity they still burned bodies in the open. Prisoners forced to go into the chambers and rob the dead of any last jewellery, gold teeth and shave their heads then carry their bodies out to be burned. These prisoners were in turn killed every few months because of what they had seen.
The wind blew through the open space it was chilly yet as we said warm for this time of year. We reminded ourselves that the prisoners were only given a denim top and bottom, could you imagine only this in -20 degrees? I asked the guide about this and she said that many did not survive the winter, and whilst they don’t have exact statistics from testimonies winter took the lives of many.
You experience a myriad of emotions, as you wander through
the museum and the grounds of both camps. Horror, sorrow, pain, anguish. The
one emotion that seemed to stay constant was disgust, pure disgust that humans
were capable of doing this to humans. Who could have even thought up these
horrific and degrading acts? Going to Auschwitz was very confronting, very
overwhelming, uncomfortable and a completely worthwhile visit.
We were amazed that even after all of this, there were
people grabbing their holiday ‘happy snaps’ taking photos of themselves smiling
outside of a place where 1.5 million innocent people were murdered, stripped
completely of their dignity, their rights, their family yet some people still
manage to get their trophy selfie. Unbelievable.
We left feeling completely drained and humbled. Everyone
should try and visit this place in their lifetime to keep the education going,
to ensure that this can never, ever be allowed to happen again.
Returning by coach you can see the Russian vibe in the
architecture and the communist housing on the outskirts. We loved the way the
housing was painted bright colours and in different ways to the other buildings
to provide them with individuality to separate them from what was so uniform.
Day 3
We took it slow the next day and went back up to castle hill
to see the former palace. Unfortunately we could not take pictures inside but
it was one of the less impressive palaces anyway so you’re not missing too
much. It is a shame that this is apparently the number 1 thing to do in Krakow,
we think it has more to offer. Although we did think that the walls covered in
leather were pretty fabulous.
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| This is a super touristy shot from the castle, who said 'white people cant jump?' |
We returned to town via a different route and found some
more beautiful churches and stopped to get some photos before settling into
McCafe for the afternoon to plan our course through Eastern Europe. Thank you
free McWi-Fi!
We had to have pierogis one more time and so returning to
the Christmas markets we got an assorted plate from a vendor. After inhaling
this lot we bought another round because they were so damn good! We wandered
the town some more, just strolling and enjoying, then we headed to the train
station and boarded our super private cabin train to Vienna.
Lessons Learnt
- Our buying power in Eastern Europe is amazing.
- We want to explore Poland more. Krakow was a really good taste of the rest of the country and given how affordable it is I think we’ll be back again.
Parting Thoughts
- Krakow is gorgeous and very cool, prices are amazing and the food is delicious!
- Auschwitz will be one of the most full on experiences of our trip. I struggle to describe just how overwhelming the emotions you experience in the various parts are.
- Furs are plentiful and easy to buy in Poland.
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